Abstract
This master’s thesis wants to contribute to a further understanding of the small participation of women in bachelor programs in Computer Science (CS). To do so, it analyzes the dialogue between normative gender discourse and occupational discourse in the field of CS as found on web-sites of CS departments. Its aim is to describe the linguistic construction of the class “computer scientist” referring to three different websites of CS departments in Brazil, Italy and Austria and comparing them with the normative construction of female and male gender categories. The analysis is based on Fairclough’s problem-orientated CDA approach, Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and an analysis of referential gender with regard to person-related nouns referring to the class “computer scientist”. This master thesis has shown that the properties of occupational discourse as presented in institutional communication on the analyzed web-sites have to be carefully considered from a gender-sensitive perspective, in order to understand how discourse reflects and (re)constitutes the institutional subject "computer scientist" in opposition to the gender norm "female". Five recommendations, directed towards specific modifications regarding institutional communication, are put forward in this thesis, and are expected to foster the participation of women in the field of CS.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Awarding Institution |
|
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Austrian Classification of Fields of Science and Technology (ÖFOS)
- 504014 Gender studies
- 602004 General linguistics